"PACKED" MEETING ALLEGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15613, 20 May 1914, Page 11

"PACKED" MEETING ALLEGED

MR. MASSEY EXPLAINS. [BY TKLtCRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.! Wellington, Tuesday. Statements have recently been published here to - the effect that tho meeting addressed by the Prime Minister at Auckland a few weeks ago was packed with Reform Party supporters. When Mr. Massey was asked by a reporter whether ho had anything to say about these allegations, he replied that as a matter of fact they were scarcely worthy of notice. However, he continued,' tho position with regard to his Auckland meeting was a, very simple one. It was intended by the committee in charge of the arrangements to open the doors at 7.30 p.m., and advertisements were inserted in tho papers to that effect. But at about seven o'clock on tho evening of the meeting, a message came to him at his hotel stating that a large crowd had already assembled and asking him whether he was in, favour of opening the doors at' an earlier hour than had been arranged. His answer was that he had no objection to the doors being opened earlier than had been stated in the advertisements, and that if the hall was full at 7.30 ho was willing to commence his address then, "or as soon as tho Mayor was willing to tako tho chair.'

"1 understood afterwards," Mr. Massey went on to remark, "that tho doors were opened a little earlier than had been intended and' when I came along about 7.30 the hall was almost full; and people were streaming in. The Mayor turned up at 7.40 p.m.. and I commenced to speak'five minutes later. . There was not the slightest attempt .at packing. All were admitted who earned along while the doors were open, and 1 several hundreds were allowed to stand in.the passages, but there was no unnecessary crushing or anything of that sort. As to the character of tho meeting I think I may say that I have had a considerable experience of public meetings, and my Auckland meeting was the best meeting 7 ever saw. The audience was thorough good humoured. There were a few who had evidently come along intending to obstruct, i but they were outnumbered by, I should say, eight to one, and after a few attempts they subsided."